Recently, I featured some cars from the Concours D’Lemons in Monterey, California. This 1955 Pontiac Safari was my sentimental favorite. Why? Because, although I didn’t mention it in my own Cars of a Lifetime, a similar Safari was actually my first car.
The new for 1955 Safari was, for two years, Pontiac’s version of the Chevrolet Nomad. A two door wagon, it used a similar platform, if that term was even used then, as the Chevy but had a slightly longer wheelbase, mostly unique sheetmetal, and Pontiac’s new V8 which shared almost nothing with the new small-block Chevy. But none of those things mattered to me, because my Safari would fit in my hand … barely.
Here I am, by the shore of the Pacific Ocean, with my already well-worn Safari. I can’t quite tell from the picture if it’s already missing its tailgate, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I was pretty hard on cars when I was young. I think this picture dates from 1959.
A few years ago, through the magic of eBay, I got reconnected with my old Pontiac, although this one was in better shape. And, in the course of researching for this post, I learned that this Tootsietoy version is in fact a 1956. But it definitely has a tailgate. And one other thing was different: when I was shopping for my first car, I had a potential deal on a clean and straight, running, one-owner ’56 Chevy convertible for $50, that unfortunately fell through. In 2015, this 7″ long Pontiac cost me quite a bit more than that.
This a heart-warming post, thank you. Thanks to the magic of E-Bay, many of us can relive great childhood memories of toys or collectibles we cherished at the time.
I was a big baseball fan growing up, and recently bought several Street & Smith’s baseball annuals from the mid and late 70s.
I was hugely into baseball as well as a kid. I accumulated a whole collection of National League Greenbooks and American League Redbooks, Sporting News, and team by team Press Guides. I don’t think I’m ready to part with them yet.
In retrospect, it’s interesting to look at pics from my childhood and see the foreshadowing. I still have the Tonka VW Beetle from when I was five or so, and the pic shows I was a Ford tractor enthusiast from a young age, too (the toy is either a Jubilee or a 600, the series that followed the 9/2/8N Series).
I had quite a few Tootsietoys when I was that age. Made in Chicago? A lot simpler than the Matchbox cars that came along later – the one time the British auto industry really made it big in the US market.
I love all the detail that is present on the box art but is completely lacking on the product itself. And what – you didn’t argue with the seller that this one was marked 98 cents? 🙂
Yes, JPC, the Safari shows Made in Chicago on the underside. Though I’m sure I loved that car, within a few years I started avidly acquiring Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi and they generally seemed more detailed and accurate than the average Tootsietoy. For the young’uns out there, this was all several years before Hot Wheels came out or at least became common.
Reminds me that my Dad’s dream car from the year of his birth is a Pontiac sedan or wagon.
1956 is in fact the year of my birth.
I loved Tootsietoys when I was just a kid and had several; I’d have gone bonkers to have had this Safari.
“The new for 1955 Safari was, for two years, Pontiac’s version of the Chevrolet Nomad. ”
Pontiac sold a two-door wagon using the “semi-hardtop” Nomad body style for all three years Chevrolet sold one (1955-57). In 1955-56, this wagon was called the Safari. It was the only Pontiac wagon known by that name, which makes it easy to spot in a list of Pontiac’s model lineup. Just as the Nomad was part of Chevy’s top of the line model, the Bel Air, the Safari was part of Pontiac’s top of the line model, the Star Chief.
In 1957, Pontiac began applying the Safari name to all of its station wagons. This makes it harder to describe the one that was the equivalent to the Nomad. Pontiac had three models in 1957, the Chieftain, the Super Chief, and the Star Chief. The two-door wagon in the Star Chief line used the Nomad body style, just as it had in 1955-56. The Chieftain also came as a two-door wagon, but it was a “regular” conventional two-door wagon; the Super Chief didn’t come as a two-door wagon (it only came as a four-door).
Thanks for the clarification.
A lot of “chiefs” in the various model names. Pontiac was wise to make the Bonneville a full-fledged model in 1958 and then go with the Catalina, Star Chief, and Bonneville names in 1959 (not counting “Safari” used on the wagons along with the model names).
My treasured possession in the mid-1950’s was a green 1954(?) Packhard convertible by Dinky Toys. I can’t remember what they cost, but they were definitely only a possibility for Christmas or birthdays in our household. Any trip into downtown Saint John, NB had to include a stop at Thorne’s Hardware on King Street to see the Dinky Toy display case.
We had a Persian style rug that had a centre of intricate ‘backroads’, surrounded by a wide ‘superhighway’ border. Hours of intense fantasy. 🙂
The Persian rug reference reminds me of a large, vinyl-upholstered footstool given as a Christmas gift to my grandparents. It featured two wide white stripes bordered by green on the top surface. We kids used it as our “expressway” with lanes divided by a wide grassy “median” and simlarly colored “shoulders” on each side. Perfectly scaled for play with Matchbox-sized cars and lots of imagination.
You’re dredging into the cobwebs in my head. I remember rugs like that, or linoleum patterns or…., back when grocery store receipts were 1 1/2 inches wide and about 2 feet long (I have 4 siblings), I’d tape the receipts together at 90 degree angles to make paper roads to drive Matchbox and Tootsietoy cars on. Simple Fun!
We had one of those colonial-style oval rugs with different color stripes in the patters. Each one made a nice, wide road and was heavily traveled.
Tootsie Toy had a bunch of wagons.
I have a ’54 Buick, ’59 Ford and ’62 Ford. Also there was a ’54 Ford and Rambler that was approximately a ’60.
The best one – both as a model and as a toy (with the opening tailgate) – was the Pontiac Safari.